HCL to acquire select IBM software products for $1.8 billion

Noida:

HCL technologies today announced an agreement with IBM under which HCL will acquire select IBM software products for $1.8 billion. The software products in scope represent a total addressable market of more than $50 billion said the company in a statement.

The products that HCL is acquiring are significant in large growing market areas like Security, Marketing and Commerce which are strategic segments for the company.

The transaction is expected to close by mid-2019, subject to completion of applicable regulatory reviews, said HCL.

“We continue to see great opportunities in the market to enhance our Mode-3 (Products and Platforms) offerings,” said C Vijayakumar, President & CEO, HCL Technologies.

“Many of these products are well regarded by clients and positioned in the top quadrant by industry analysts,” added C Vijayakumar.

“The large-scale deployments of these products provide us with a great opportunity to reach and serve thousands of global enterprises across a wide range of industries and markets. I am confident that these products will see good growth trajectory backed by our commitment to invest in product innovation coupled with our strong client focus and agile product development. In addition, we see tremendous potential for creating compelling ‘as-a-service’ offerings by combining these products with our Mode-1 and Mode-2 services,” said C Vijayakumar.

HCL and IBM are already have ongoing partnership on five of these products.

“We believe the time is right to divest these select collaboration, marketing and commerce software assets, which are increasingly delivered as stand-alone products. At the same time, we believe these products are a strong strategic fit for HCL, and that HCL is well positioned to drive innovation and growth for their customers,” said John Kelly, IBM senior vice president, Cognitive Solutions and Research.

“Over the last four years, we have been prioritizing our investments to develop integrated capabilities in areas such as AI for business, hybrid cloud, cybersecurity, analytics, supply chain and blockchain as well as industry-specific platforms and solutions including healthcare, industrial IOT, and financial services. These are among the emerging, high-value segments of the IT industry. As a result, IBM is a leader in these segments today,” added Kelly.

HCL operates out of 43 countries and has consolidated revenues of US$ 8.2 billion, for 12 Months ended 30th September 2018.